The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for addressing and stacking individual pieces of printed matter for mailing, such as sheets of paper, magazine copies, booklets and other bindery articles.
Addressing machines are generally designed to apply address labels from computer-printed stationary (multiform) onto envelopes or other mailing material. The stationary, which may have different widths, can be printed in any number of columns, generally from one to five, and the vertical spacing from the start of one address to the next can be varied as desired.
The printed form is perforated or cut between the columns and then a complete horizontal strip of names and addresses is guillotined. A burster section separates the strip into individual address labels before applying each one to a mailing piece. The burster section may be connected to an electronic photocell device located in front of the feeder, so that the burster will release an address label only upon detection of a mailing piece.
Such addressing machines may be equipped with a zip code reader for group separation and an adjustable batch counter enabling the machine to batch in any quantity within a given range. The batches may be collected onto an intermittently driven conveyor belt, and upon reaching a given batch quantity, the conveyor belt may be advanced an appropriate step for providing fresh conveyor space on which the next batch may be collected.
However, such labelling machines alone are not able to change the orientation of the mailing pieces so as to stack, e.g. copies of magazines, in stacks or piles comprising batches of copies, the copies of each batch having their backs oriented the same way, but oppositely of the underlying batch, so as to make the stack or pile upright despite the normally increased thickness of the back of the copies.
An addressing machine to be used in connection with such printed matter must therefore be installed together with, or in line with, a stacking machine provided with means for performing this type of stacking, so as to build up a naturally vertical pile of copies before the latter is packed and forwarded for distribution to its destination.
Various types of stacking machines are known and are available on the market. A first type of stacking machine comprises a feeding conveyor for feeding magazine copies or the like to a stacking section having a lowerable and turnable support for receiving the copies thereonto. When a given number of copies, i.e. a batch of copies, has been stacked on the support, a signal initiated by a counter means initiates discontinuation of the feeding operation and initiates operation of the turning movement of the support by 180.degree.. On completion of the turning movement, the conveyor regains its feeding operation until another batch has been piled up on the previous one.
Upon completion of a full pile, a signal originating from the same counter means initiates removal of the pile, simultaneously as the signal instructs the feeding mechanism to be discontinued. As will be understood, a stacking machine of this type has the disadvantage of interrupting the feeding operation each time the batches are turned and each time a pile is removed from the machine.
A second type of stacking machine comprises a feeding conveyor for feeding magazine copies or the like to the top of a stacking chamber having a lowerable and hoistable support for receiving the copies in a pile. The copies are delivered one by one at a relatively high speed and may be fed to the stacking chamber with their backs oriented differently. In the stacking chamber the copies are arranged in a naturally balanced pile which, when completed, is pushed out from the stacker, whilst the next continually delivered copies which are to form the next pile are collected temporarily in a recipient and therefrom delivered to the support for the pile as soon as the support is cleared of the previous pile.
The present invention has therefore been developed in connection with a stacking machine in which the stacking of mailing pieces, i.e. magazine copies or the like, may be accomplished in the above-described manner without introducing any discontinuation in the stacking or removing operation of the piles.